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Articles by Anthony Judge

From Globalization to Toroidization or Back to Flatland? Much is made of the fundamental shift in historical perspective from living on a Flat Earth to dwelling on a rotating sphere — a globe revolving around the Sun. The argument here endeavours to clarify the manner in which the toroidal form can be used in support of imaginative insight of strategic relevance — for the individual, if not for the collective.

Any 16-fold pattern is a provocative challenge to comprehension, given the constraints on human capacity with respect to the complexity of any such pattern as a whole. This is especially the case when such a pattern is used by the United Nations to frame an overriding strategic preoccupation for global governance — with an explicit call for widespread credibility.

Recognizing Assumptions and Unasked Questions when Facing Crisis – The question here is whether the institutions of governance, and those attaching credibility to them, are capable of recognizing that there is every possibility that they are unable to cope. It could be argued that this has long been the case.

29 Jul 2019 – This exploration follows from previous concern that, despite their symbolic importance, little effort has been made to clarify the possible dynamics between people of wisdom variously configured together at an archetypal “round table”. The issue is of continuing importance with respect to 12-person juries and the committees of the wise periodically convened in response to challenges of governance.

22 Jul 2019 – Learning Action Avoidance from Rabbits in Anticipation of Disaster – Much is now made of assessments of carbon footprint, ecological footprint and climate footprint, and the strategies for their reduction in different situations. There is however a case for exploring the choice of the footprint metaphor given its associations with the most distant part of the human anatomy, however grounded it may be held to be — despite being necessarily left behind.

15 Jul 2019 – Faced with global crises, it is useful to recall the variants of the well-known insight: There Is Always a Well-Known Solution to Every Human Problem — Neat, Plausible, and Wrong. How many of the advocated global strategies can be recognized in that light?

International Complicity in Avoidance of Consideration of Long-term Human Suffering – In a period when much is made of the consequences of evolution of global warming over the coming decades and to the end of the century — highlighted by extreme weather conditions — virtually nothing is discussed about the evolution of migration pressure over the decades to come. Whereas statistical estimates are available on the former, none are officially available on the latter.

Produced on the occasion of the reconfiguration of political groupings following Europe-wide elections — coinciding with an “optics” enhancing visit of Donald Trump to Europe — raising the question of the necessary “optics” enhancement of the European Union.

28 May 2019 – Climate Change Recognized as Primarily a Psychological Challenge – The key to any viable strategic response to the planetary environmental tragedy is as much a psychological matter as one of constraining carbon emissions and other excesses.

27 May 2019 – Produced in the light of concern regarding dissemination of “fake news” undermining elections to the European Parliament, of claims regarding the “fake news” purveyed by those seeking election, and in anticipation of an imminent false flag justification for war.

9 May 2019 – Donald Trump is the duly elected President of the USA — elected by the American People according to well-defined electoral procedures. It is currently irrelevant whether those procedures are in any way in question. Trump is therefore the legitimate representative of the American People. He is variously acclaimed and recognized as the leader of the world’s greatest superpower.

6 May 2019 – Transcending Divisiveness by Systematic Embodiment of Metaphor in Discourse – There is no difficulty in recognizing the extent to which discourse has become problematic, whether in national assemblies, parliaments, or the media (social media or otherwise). The current scene has been described as poisonously divisive.

1 Apr 2019 – The Tao symbol is widely known as an indication of viable harmony between opposites — understood as a possibility for a mature human civilization of the future. There is extensive commentary on the subtlety of the insight it represents, dating most notably from that of Laozi in the Tao Te Ching. This explains that the Tao is not a ‘name’ for a ‘thing’ but the underlying natural order of the Universe whose ultimate essence is difficult to circumscribe due to it being non conceptual yet evident in one’s being of aliveness.

18 Feb 2019 – A set of seemingly disparate issues are curiously entangled — whilst variously upheld as of both local and global significance. Most obvious are the attractions of migration for the desperate and the divisive impact on local communities — possibly framed as invasion or encroachment.

21 Jan 2019 – Draft Proposal for an International Convention – It can be readily argued that many conventional crises are a consequence of increasing population — unemployment, environmental degradation, access to food and water resources, failing social security services, disease, inaccessibility of education, refugees, security threats, violence, waste, and the like.

14 Jan 2019 – Eliciting Consensus Nationally and Internationally – At the time of writing, the French government of Emmanuel Macron is about to engage in a three month Grand Débat National (January-March 2019). This is being instigated around the country as a means of clarifying issues raised by the remarkable uprising of the Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”), widely publicized worldwide.

7 Dec 2019 – Metaphors Reframing Problematic Engagement with Otherness – The continuing quest for some form of unity is evident in many domains. It is however striking that enthusiasm for unity in any one domain typically precludes any consideration for that of another.

13 Dec 2018 | Bird Flight and Landing as Complementary Metaphors of Global Strategic Coherence | Produced on the occasion of the unexpected riots of the Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”) throughout France, with images of Paris in flames, symbolically paralleled by a UN Climate Change Summit to implement the Paris Agreement .

8 Dec 2018 – Produced on the occasion of the unexpected riots of the Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”) throughout France, symbolically paralleled by a UN Climate Change Summit to implement the Paris Agreement. – Recognizing the Role of the “Dark Riders” of Social Change

5 Nov 2018 – Institutionalizing Global Myopia in Anticipation of Excessive Population Growth – Produced in anticipation of the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (Marrakech, 2018)

Part III of Collapse and Renaissance of Civilization: Dilemma of Communication and Engagement Understood Otherwise – The argument here is that, rather than depending on authorities anxious to ensure that their particular worldview is faithfully reproduced in any Renaissance (however ineffectually), individuals may in effect be free to adopt and test alternative modalities at will.

Much is currently made of an impending collapse, whether the focus is on that of the economic system (as some kind of replica of 1929 or 2008), of the ecosystem (notably as a consequence of climate change), or of overpopulation and other post-peak implications (notably the exhaustion of non-renewable energy resources), as can be variously recognized.

Draft Proposal for an International Convention – It can be readily argued that many conventional crises are a consequence of increasing population — unemployment, environmental degradation, access to food and water resources, failing social security services, disease, inaccessibility of education, refugees, security threats, violence, and the like. Such arguments derive primarily from marginal groups and are readily deprecated.

27 Aug 2018 – The challenge of the “headless hearts” to the “heartless heads” was used in an earlier argument as a means of framing the response to the refugee/migration crisis. The conclusion pointed to the possibility of new mnemonic aids to discourse, as developed here — possibly to be understood as an annex to that argument.

31 Jul 2018 – Democracy is readily to be recognized as a configuration of opposing strategies, with the challenge being the coherence of that configuration. The tendency is to seek to reduce the multiplicity to a univocal perspective as exemplifying the singular “will of the people” — variously marginalizing, out-maneuvering or eradicating any opposing voice.

2 Jul 2018 – Commentary on Web Resources on Types of Waiting and Anticipation – It could be readily assumed that waiting is an incidental process, experienced by all in some way, but incidental to the reality of meaningful life in any society.

Self-Righteous Immoral Imperative Enabling Future Human Sacrifice – Produced on the occasion of the Informal “mini-summit” on migration and asylum convened by the European Commission in anticipation of a meeting of the European Council to discuss migration issues (June 2018)

Embodying the Future through Higher Derivatives of Time – Illusory projection along the arrow of time? There is a widespread, if not dominant, strategic concern with the future and its prospects. This naturally takes a variety of forms.

1 Jun 2018 – Global Articulation of Future-Oriented Technology Analysis – Much is made of the future role of technology and artificial intelligence, especially in their relation to the evolution of the internet. Far less is made of their role in the organization of knowledge and, more particularly, in enabling higher degrees of comprehension.

14 May 2018 – Dynamics of Braiding Incommensurable Insights for Sustainable Governance – There is a case for recognizing the extent to which governance of many kinds is a matter of “juggling” parameters, variables, resources, people, schedules, risks, and disparate skills.

Review of “Come On: Capitalism, Short-termism, Population and the Destruction of the Planet” – Prepared on the occasion of the book launch during the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the Club of Rome (London, 26 April 2018)

16 Apr 2018 – Gaps in the testimony of Mark Zuckerberg at a US Senate hearing? The questions are each introduced as shown below, but are presented separately in much expanded form in the [Go to Original] complete document. This also includes animated mappings of the set of questions as a means of evoking more integrative perspective on the set of questions as a whole.

2 Apr 2018 – Essential Impotence Disguised by Performance and “Being Great Again” – An increasingly prominent feature of national politics and identity is the promise of “being great again”, as variously evident. This is most notable in the nation already esteemed as the most powerful on the planet and has also been taken up in Great Britain, France, and elsewhere.

A viable alternative to the response of Donald Trump to the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting (14 Feb 2018) with its focus on arming teachers. What follows is a proposal by the Notional Rifle Association — necessarily more radical than that of our colleagues in the National Rifle Association. It could be considered potentially both more politically feasible and more cost-effective.

Loving the World Otherwise Through Contractual Bonding with Any Significant Other – Much is currently made of same-sex marriage as a breakthrough in the legality of consensual bonding between those of the same gender.

Understanding Why There Are No Extraterrestrial Visitors – The concern here is to explore the evidence for Planet Earth as a “shithole” planet, as it might be perceived in the light of various criteria. The argument is used as a means of explaining the absence of any overt contact with extraterrestrials.

Produced on the occasion of media red carpet coverage of Golden Globes 2018 in anticipation of the Oscars 2018. Missing from the feminist declarations and media coverage is any sense whatsoever that there are other forms of “harassment” which may or may not involve women. By framing harassment as being exclusively male-on-female …

Maybe Time to Appreciate the Dish – Produced on the occasion of the response to the critical commentary of Michael Wolff (Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, 2018; Donald Trump Didn’t Want to Be President, New York Magazine, 3 January 2018)

31 Dec 2017 – Catalytic Methodology for Effective Interfaith Dialogue – Importance of the highest degree is attached by their respective believers to the symbols of the monotheistic Abrahamic faiths. Their mutual hostility over millennia is focused by and through those symbols. They are displayed and brandished on ever possible occasion.

25 Dec 2017 – Comprehending the dynamics of hyperreality as a challenge to conventional two-state reality. Development of an argument presented previously. Later amendments to that text have been removed from there for presentation below — in the light of decisions by the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly.

11 Dec 2017 – The recently elected President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, has made the historic decision to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. This highly controversial initiative offers an unprecedented opportunity to reframe the Middle East peace process and the highly problematic relations between Israel and Palestine, originally engendered by the United Nations in envisaging its own administration of Jerusalem as a corpus separatum.

Recovering Personal Control of Visual Proximity through Virtual Reality – Expressed otherwise, people have to recover the right to reframe those encountered. They may well have to take responsibility for doing so in an environment characterized by increasingly fake imagery complementing fake news.

27 Nov 2017 – A major challenge of the times can be framed metaphorically in terms of consumption, osmosis and circulation. Interface challenge of inside-outside, insight-outsight, information-outformation.

Eppur si muove: Biomimetic embedding of N-tuple helices in spherical polyhedral – The contrast to the geocentric model of the solar system was framed by Galileo Galilei. His much-cited phrase, ” And yet it moves” (E pur si muove or Eppur si muove) was pronounced in 1633 when he was forced to recant his claims that the Earth moves around the immovable Sun rather than the converse. The argument here assumes that much more is based on circles than is conventionally held to be the case.

Much is known about the structure and dynamics of hurricanes. Much is also known about the helical structure of DNA and of spirals in general. The question is how such insight might be related to the intuited significance of the triadic triskelion and how it might be employed to enrich the very particular institutional preoccupations promoted under the banner of the Triple Helix model and its extensions.

Transcending Vain Hopes of Squaring the Circle in Global Decision-Making – There are many commentaries on the current inadequacy of governance, whether global, regional or national. As currently understood by those upheld as being insightful and skilled in matters of governance, it can be argued that society is proving to be increasingly ungovernable, if not inherently so.

Raising the Question as to Why They Are Not Effectively Addressed – Produced on the occasion of Earth Overshoot Day (2 August 2017), namely the date on which humanity’s resource consumption in 2017 exceeds Earth’s capacity to regenerate those resources in 2017. The date is nearly a week earlier than in 2016.

Hyperdimensional insights from the physics of bubble blowing, bursting and collapse? Is there anything of psychosocial relevance to be learned from the extensive research on the physics of bubbles regarding the particular nature and efficacy of a “prick” as it might relate to complacent complicity?

Speculative Review of Missing Emphases Potentially Vital for Psychosocial Balance – The contrasting roles of “pro” and “con” in the English discourse so characteristic of the current global civilization call for particular attention.

8 Jul 2017 – Raising the Question as to Why They Are Not Effectively Addressed – Written on the occasion of the G20 Summit (Hamburg, July 2017) at which both terrorism and migration are prominent agenda items.

8 Jul 2017 – Beyond the Irresponsibility of Current Political and Humanitarian Short-Termism – Written on the occasion of the G20 Summit (Hamburg, July 2017) at which migration and terrorism are prominent agenda items.

Engaging Otherwise with What People Find Meaningful – The earlier argument made particular reference to Rubik’s Cube, its more complex variants, and their implementation in virtual reality applications as a means of bypassing technical and other constraints of physical construction and distribution. The focus of the World Cube Association is on speedcubing and the regulation of speedsolving competitions for Rubik’s Cube and similar puzzles.

In Quest of the Systemic Coherence of Global Attractors – In a period of global crises a frame of reference is offered by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals articulated by the UN, superseding the earlier formulation of the 8 Millennium Development Goals. How indeed are people expected to “get their heads around “the set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals?

Potentially Hidden Faces of Global Strategy Highlighted Through Polyhedra – The question is whether new insights into the nature and potential of NATO (or The Pentagon) could be derived from depiction in 3D — or 4D, if dynamics can be reflected in suitable animations. Whether these aspects are already implicit, or could be usefully rendered explicit, remains to be investigated.

Neglected Implicit Cognitive Cycles in Viable Complex Systems – Despite the widely commented implications of a post-truth era, few would deny the fact that the unresolved issues between the Abrahamic religions continue to inspire violence — with no end in sight. This encourages major investment in armaments and the development and deployment of military forces.

At the time of writing, a primary theme of the cult movie The Matrix offers pointers to an unusual way of reframing engagement with the current challenges of society. The movie highlights the choice between the Red Pill and the Blue Pill, namely a choice between enabling knowledge, freedom and the sometimes painful recognition of reality — in contrast with a blue pill reinforcing more-of-the-same, namely falsehood, security and blissful ignorance of illusion.

Herding Facts and Their Alternatives in a Post-Truth-Era – In a period in which the very nature of facts has been called into question — challenged as they are by alternative facts — there is a case for exploring this condition by every means possible.

Reframing Integral Possibilities for the Future – Given that a case is rapidly building against the incapacity of Trump, the following argument is topical. With respect to the perspective of Ken Wilber, it is framed by earlier consideration with regard to integral futures.

Beyond Reactive Protest, Demonstration and Resistance – From a strategic perspective, the current situation calls for careful attention to the relation between “outrage” and the “outrageous”. Most obviously, the comments and actions of Donald Trump are widely considered “outrageous”. They have evoked “outrage” on the part of those opposed to their implications.

Thinking Otherwise about Framing the Engagement with Society’s Worst Fear – Donald Trump has just been elected 45th President of the USA, against all expectation by many sectors of society — and despite every effort to prevent this outcome. Trump won according to the rules of the American democratic system.

and the Manipulation of Global Categories – It has become strikingly evident that most major international conferences and summits have become exercises in non-decision-making. Indeed, as encouraged by “question avoidance”, decision avoidance has become an art form in its own right.

¿ In-quest of a decision-making framework appropriate to a world in crisis? This is a response to the announcement of the surprising Global Challenges Prize for a New Shape Remodelling Global Cooperation (2017).

Personal Cognitive Implication in Globalization? Conventionally a Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors rather than from profit. The term “Ponzi scheme” is used primarily in the United States , while other English-speaking countries do not distinguish colloquially between this scheme and pyramid schemes.

5 Dec 2016 – Reframing the Challenge of Trump and Jihadism as Worthy Opponents – Much is now made of the increasing challenge of right-wing populism, especially as it is articulated by unconventional leaders held to have dubious associations with dangerous political strategies.

Insights from Dynamics of a Pentagonal Configuration of Nonagons in 3D – The case for a “concordian mandala” was made previously. This was inspired by the social chaos purportedly addressed by the so-called Discordian Mandala. The mandala is described in the controversial Principia Discordia, elaborated by Greg Hill with Kerry Wendell, as the provocative doctrinal manifesto of Discordianism.

Trump vs Clinton and the potential of carpe diem in the democratic process? The future will no doubt be appalled by the current presidential campaign in the USA through which the leader of the world’s superpower will emerge. But by what exactly might the future be appalled?

24 Sep 2016 – Voluminous Thinking to Complement the Lateral Thinking of the International Community – Media coverage of the dramatic humanitarian situation in Aleppo repeatedly makes the case for the inability of trucks with remedial food supplies to get through safely to the areas most in need.

This is an exploration of the focus given to the challenge to French cultural identity by women there wearing the full-body burkha (burka, burqa). In the light of current media coverage of French preoccupation with the iconic bare-breasted Marianne — symbol of the French Republic. This bares comparison with the recent preoccupation in the USA with the erection in a number of cities of statues of the Republican presidential nominee — Donald Trump — bare-assed. Both cases are indicative of emerging forms of national psychosis in a period of so-called “post-truth politics” marked by bare-faced lying by the highest authorities.

Ignoring Complicity in the Contradictions Thereby Engendered – At the time of writing, the argument can be made otherwise with the popular appeal of the promise of one US presidential nominee to “make America great again”. How is the desperate need to “be number one” to be related to whatever is implied by human equality? The question of principle is strikingly defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that: all men are born free and equal in rights and dignity.

Inspired by Implications of the Systemantics of the Discordian Mandala – As discussed, of particular interest in global discourse are the controversial implications of the prefix “con”, as used with both integrative connotations and those of condemnation or opposition — of contrariness and contradiction.

It is unclear what systematic consideration is publicly given to the criteria of democratic fairness in referenda and other elections. Little has been said in this respect with respect to the process of Brexit — the democratic decision of the UK to leave the European Union. In the course of protests regarding that result, it was announced that an even closer result in a major presidential election in Austria had led to a decision to hold the election again.

Alternatives to “2-Stroke Democracy” Suggested by 4-Sided Ball Games – Prepared on the occasion of the historical Brexit referendum through which the UK decided to leave the European Union — in a period in which popular concern was primarily focused on the outcome of Euro 2016 .

Implications for Authoritative Response to Future Surprises – This is an exploration of the level of neglected risk visibly and dramatically highlighted by a number of recent widely publicized floods which have been framed as unforeseeable surprises.